Pet friendly accommodation?

dizziblonde

jangor wrote: »

I suppose I am very lucky as my LL has dogs of her own so she did not charge me any extra for my two dogs (3 legged BC and a small spaniel cross). However the agreement does state that on departure I am to have the carpets cleaned and any damage repaired which is of course fair enough. However I keep rugs over the carpets and my dogs are walked 2/3 times daily and sleep the remainder of the time! I don't think, apart from a few hairs, that anyone would actually notice that dogs live with me. I would however be happy to pay an additional deposit if requested. I always get very annoyed when I read of pet owners who allow their pets to damage property as it is very difficult to find LLs who are willing to rent to pet owners as it is.

Yep exactly the same here - have rugs covering as much of the downstairs carpets as I can (cream carpet +black and white cat = recipe for insane hoovering), furball's not allowed upstairs unless I'm there, and apart from the snoring from the sofa - you'd never notice she was here.

I'm probably more careful with rented houses than a pet-less tenant to be honest - because I know how quick some landlords would be to jump on the anti-furry bandwagon... despite the fact that an elderly feline tripod is probably as inocuous a pet as it's possible to get (unless snoring while you're trying to watch telly)!

I'd wait and look for somewhere else rather than pay increased rent though - deposit, fine... you want some guarantee I don't have a complete ASBO-case... extra rent - just want some more cash.

estelle123

I rent with 2 dogs,i paid the usual 1 month deposit and 1 month rent.My LL loves my dogs who spend more time on MY furniture then they do on the floor.

Sagz_2

The Let with Pets website has a downloadable booklet 'Renting to Pet Owners' that may give some useful tips.

And Well Done OP for considering us poor pet owners :T

chucknorris

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

The whole point of the deposit is to compensate you for any additional costs or damages, so what exactly is your "premium" for? How would a pet cause loss of rent?

It could if you had someone who had the house really smelling of dog and that put off prospective tenants viewing the property whilst they were still in, thus resulting in a rental void between tenancies.

I'm a tenant with a pet and would not be prepared to pay extra. Do you really think a pet will cause more damage than the ordinary deposit costs? If so, why not charge more rent and deposit for renting to a couple over a single person? After all, two people are twice as likely to cause damage than one person. While you're at it you should charge a premium for children too. And red wine drinkers. And clumsy people.

It's clearly an additional risk, if you don't understand that then there really is no point in debating the subject further, we will just have to agree to disagree.

<sebb>

Tenants dont even have to let you in to show prospective tenants while they are still living there. That's probably a bigger risk than the one you have described.

chucknorris

BadgerFace wrote: »

We're just looking at the moment and I would be very happy to professionally clean, double deposit etc. If, however, you asked for additional rent, I would not touch you with a barge pole.

Have a look at Letswithpets dot org dot uk, it explains the benefits and also gives example lease clauses etc.

The things is though how would youknow about the extra rent? I ask because I tend to market my property at about 5% less than market rates to give me a much wider choice of tenant. My bet is that you would just assume you were not paying any more because it would be at the market rent.

chucknorris

<sebb> wrote: »

Tenants dont even have to let you in to show prospective tenants while they are still living there. That's probably a bigger risk than the one you have described.

In 19 years of being a LL with 4-5 properties ALL of my tenants have showed prospective incoming tenants around, I have always has a good relationship with all of my tenants (except the one that I had to evict, eand even then the two other flat mates stayed on and are still there 2 years later)

chucknorris

Norbertsmum wrote: »

The Let with Pets website has a downloadable booklet 'Renting to Pet Owners' that may give some useful tips.

And Well Done OP for considering us poor pet owners :T

Thanks that was useful especially this bit:

Pet payment: You may also want to ask pet-owning tenants for a non-refundable pet payment to cover the cost of professionally cleaning the property once they have moved out. This would cover the cleaning of carpets, soft-furnishings and curtains.
It is good practice to provide the tenant with a written estimate for professionally cleaning your property so that they know the pet payment you are asking for is fair.
Any pet payment taken by the landlord or letting agent should be taken at the start of the tenancy and would be non-refundable.

Which would be what I was calling a premium.

It could also be explained to propspective incoming tenants that the place would be going through a thorough clean done by professional cleaners before their tenancy commenced.

myothercarisaferrari

thank you SO much for considering pet owners!

I live in a two bed first floor flat with two dogs and my LL has been great. Hasn't charged any extra and is letting me replace the carpets with vinyl :-) I clean and hoover every single day, no dogs on furniture and if I leave I will repaint and get new carpets.

chucknorris

myothercarisaferrari wrote: »

thank you SO much for considering pet owners!

I live in a two bed first floor flat with two dogs and my LL has been great. Hasn't charged any extra and is letting me replace the carpets with vinyl :-) I clean and hoover every single day, no dogs on furniture and if I leave I will repaint and get new carpets.

What brought about our re-think was that we love our dog (a lab springer cross), we always take him on holiday with us, cottages in the UK so far, soon to be villas in Spain (via the car ferry to Santander). But we have found that we are excluded from a lot of good property and sometimes offered what we would consider a bit down market. So we then started to think that there must be quite a lot of decent tenants with pets in the same position.